After an entire summer of speculation, the Buffalo Sabres announced today that Jason Pominville will serve as captain for the 2011-12 season.
Ignoring the popular public cries for Thomas Vanek or Tyler Myers among others, Lindy Ruff and his staff have chosen the quiet, dependable Pominville, a seven-year veteran who’s been with the organization since being a second round draft pick in 2001, to wear the C.
The team also announced that the alternate captains for this season will be Thomas Vanek, Drew Stafford, Paul Gaustad and Derek Roy, and the A will rotate between two of those players each game. With the announcement of those five players, Lindy Ruff and his staff have shown a commitment to the the core of veteran forwards who have been with the team since being drafted, grew up in Rochester together, and are now being counted on to lead the Sabres both on and off the ice. You can see the video of Ruff’s announcement to the team at the bottom of the post.
Pominville has been serving as an assistant captain for a few years now, and has worn the C before when Ruff rotated the captaincy in 2007-08, but Pommers will now take over as the full-time captain the Sabres have lacked since Craig Rivet was shipped out of town last February. He is only the 16th player to wear a full-time C for Buffalo (I’d rather not count the rotating C’s of 2003-04 and 2007-08, thank you very much) joining such Sabres luminaries as Gilbert Perreault, Danny Gare, Lindy Ruff, Pat LaFontaine, Michael Peca, and Chris Drury. A full list of Sabres captains can be found after the break.
While the Sabres named five players today who will wear letters, does anyone else find it interesting that none of them reside along the blueline? For those who wanted Myers to be the future team captain, the fact that he’s not even wearing an A should tell you that the team has other players to fill that role. Let’s let the young giant grow into his position a little more before we saddle him with a letter.
Jason Pominville may not have been your personal choice, but now that the decision has been made, what do you think?
Team captains (courtesy of Wikipedia)
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